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Sunday, April 16, 2017

Stop the killing, create a corridor

We
knew the fight for the West of Mosul was going to be a tough one. Yet the
deaths of hundreds of civilians, under the rubble of collapsed buildings, are
much more than collateral damage on the just cause to beat the Islamic
terror group ISIS.

Were
the buildings, where ISIS had collected civilians as a human shield, rigged by
explosives set off by the group, as the Iraqi army is indicating? Or was the
information the Iraqis fed the coalition on targets incorrect? Or did the
Iraqis chose the location too lightly, just targeting the sharp shooters on
the roof who were taking the attention away from the real targets next door?

There
are many questions that can and should be asked, because killing hundreds of
innocent civilians in one day can never justified.

The
coalition has since said they take "deliberate actions to minimize
unnecessary suffering" and that they will "continue to prioritize the
protection of the people of Iraq".

But
what is unnecessary suffering, if not the way men, women and children died,
cramped in a cellar trying to survive from the ferocious bombing campaign?

I
absolutely agree that ISIS needs to be defeated, but surely not to the costs of
civilians who also spent almost three years under the cruel rule of ISIS.

The
way they now get killed, makes you wonder about the care that the military has
been taken in this battle.

By
trapping ISIS on the Westbank of Mosul, one could predict that the fighting
would be fierce as all these brainwashed men can do is fight till death that
they believe will bring them paradise.

Their cause, the jihad, is omni important for
them; civilians who are not supporting it are unbelievers and seen as the
enemy.

These civilians are really caught in the middle,
as on the one hand the ISIS top issued a special fatwa making it OK if Muslim
civilians get killed in the fight for the good cause.

And on the other hand, the policy of Baghdad in
the past has shown that it considered Mosul as a city that deserved ISIS for
the way it showed its unhappiness with the Shiite government.

Moslawi civilians are very aware of the fact that
Baghdad was forewarned about the activities of ISIS that led to its take over
of the city in Juni 2014, and did nothing to prevent it.

They also remember very well that Iraqi troops
got out when ISIS entered in stead of defending them, based on orders from then
prime minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Even though civilians are grateful to and happy
with the troops that liberate them from ISIS, and have shown this in every area
the Iraqi army reached, that feeling does not extend to the Iraqi government.

Bombing civilians, and then refusing to come
clean and taking the blame for what happened, is not

helping to increase the
popularity of the Shiite politicians in charge in Baghdad.

Moslawis have been through hell, as they told me,
lost three years of their lives and are now confronted with the loss of houses
and livelyhood.

They now need a government that they can trust,
to be able to put their trust in the future and start rebuilding. And they need
to be sure that ISIS will not in some way get back and retaliate.

What is needed first is to finish off ISIS in
Mosul, but as the neighbourhoods left are old and cramped, the policy of
leaving the ISIS fighters no corridor to escape should be reconsidered.

Let the fighters know they can leave, as long as
they leave all behind, and part of the desperation will leave the battle for
them too.

Finish them off elsewhere, where civilians are
not going to be involved. Lure them to another place to smoke them out.
Whatever policy is used will do, as long as inocent people are left off the
hook.

We expect they will regroup in the border area of
Syria and Iraq, which is mostly desert and hardly inhabited, so that sounds
like the perfect place to contain and beat them.

Because if the government is honest about wanting
to liberate Mosul, it needs to show it cares for its people.

And only if Moslawis have the feeling that their
urge to rebuild their city and their lives will be supported by politicians
that run the country, they will be tempted to make this happen.

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Stay for the best result

Iraq gets under your skin. It is a country that is constantly changing. A place with a shortage of energy and water, but plenty of hospitality. Because of the many trauma's and scars, every step forward can be considered a victory. That is why it creeps under your skin - and you will stay, for the best result.

About me

I am a Dutch journalist working in Iraqi Kurdistan since 2008, a correspondent for Dutch and Belgian media (amongst others) and an author of 6 books, of which two have been translated into Kurdish. I set up the Independent Media Centre in Kurdistan which I lead till the end of 2012.